"Mirage"
The hope I dreamed of was a dream,
Was but a dream; and now I wake
Exceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,
For a dream's sake.

I hang my harp upon a tree,
A weeping willow in a lake;
I hang my silenced harp there, wrung and snapt
For a dream's sake.

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break;
Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed
For a dream's sake.

In the poem "Mirage", poet Christina Rosetti discusses hopeless dreams. She brings up her own hopes, which she then denounces as "but a dream" (Rosetti 2). She puts everything into following this hope, and she ends up "Silenced... wrung and snapt" (Rosetti 7). After she completely invests herself, she realizes the dream was only a mirage. She changed herself and her life for something that ended up worthless.